Texas redistricting responses due
on Dec 1, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Weighing two separate pleas by Texas officials to clear the way for candidates to start filing for seats in the state legislature and in the Texas delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives, Justice Antonin Scalia has requested responses from challengers to maps drawn up by the state’s legislature. Responses are due at 4 p.m. today in separate cases involving the state house and the state senate maps (applications 11A520 and 11A521, respectively). This morning, Scalia also asked for a response in the separate proceeding involving the U.S. House map (application 11A536). That response is due next Monday at 10 a.m. (All of the cases bear the same title, Perry v. Perez.)
A three-judge U.S. District Court in San Antonio has drawn up its own interim plans for both chambers of the legislature and for U.S. House seats, while the validity of maps crafted by the state legislature is under review in federal court. The state’s three applications to Justice Scalia contend that the District Court had no authority to put into effect any plan other than those drawn by the legislature. Candidates were to begin filing their papers to run as of this past Monday. The filing period runs through Dec. 15.
Justice Scalia has authority to act alone on the applications, but he also has the option of sharing it with his eight colleagues. With responses coming in on different dates, it is unclear whether Scalia or the Court will act on the three applications individually, or together.
